Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Headquarters

Construction has officially started on the new headquarters of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is relocating from its current premises at Canary Wharf to The International Quarter – the £2.3 billion development in Stratford, which, at a total of 4 million square feet, is set to become the capital’s fourth business district.

Lendlease and LCR, the joint venture partners delivering The International Quarter, held a ground-breaking ceremony for the FCA’s new 425,000-square-foot headquarters, which sits at the gateway to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The building has been designed by world-class architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, with the interior design being undertaken by Pringle Brandon Perkins+Will, a practice renowned for their design expertise in delivering excellent workplaces.

Like all the buildings at The International Quarter, the FCA headquarters has been designed with staff health and well-being at its core. Features including open atria, extensive natural daylight, internal connecting staircases and a large roof terrace, will allow employees to be more flexible and healthy in the way they choose to work. This new generation of agile offices will be home to 3,500 FCA staff from mid-2018.

An estimated 1,200 construction jobs will be created on site at The International Quarter by spring 2016 and Lendlease has recently partnered with Newham Council, Newham Workplace and Building Crafts College to deliver a ten-week training programme to upskill unemployed Newham residents in construction – ensuring as many roles are awarded to local people as possible.